PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM

Phineas Taylor Barnum

Phineas Taylor Barnum

Introduction

The son of Philo F. Barnum, a farmer and shopkeeper, and Irena Taylor, Phineas Taylor Barnum was born on July 5, 1810, in Bethel, Connecticut, where he attended public schools until his early teens. Barnum became familiar with the art of salesmanship from an early age by acting as an independent candy peddler. Upon the death of his father when Barnum was 15 years of age, he took a job clerking in a general store and gave early evidence of initiative and imagination by creating and promoting a lottery that offered as prizes discarded bottles ...